Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

The Principles, published when the author was only twenty-six, is the most
systematic of all of Berkeley's expositions of his theory of knowledge: it was
the direct outgrowth of the Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), which
sought to banish the metaphysical abstractions of Absolute Space and Extension
from philosophy, and was itself mainly concerned with the abolition of
Abstract Matter and of the ontological and theological corollaries of that
concept. The Dialogues treat of substantially the same subjects but are more
familiar and elegant in form and are devoted in the main to the refutation of
the most plausible popular and philosophical objections to the new doctrine.
The two books mark a distinctively new epoch in philosophy and science, and
together afford a comprehensive survey of Berkeley's doctrines, placing within
the reach of every reader in remarkably brief compass opinions which have
profoundly influenced the course of intellectual history. Works of this kind
have been almost invariably distinguished by their brevity, ""I had no
inclinations is Berkeley's characteristic remark, ""to trouble the world with
large volumes